Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
by HecateA
Summary: Now that he's gone into hiding, Hannah only sees Neville for a quarter of an hour every day—which is hardly enough time for a conversation, let alone a proper chance to work through the world around them and the unexpected turns. Still, they have to believe that this string of days is leading to something meaningful. Oneshot.


**Author's note: **This story was so annoying to write not because I didn't enjoy it or dislike the final outcome—on the contrary, I'm quite happy with it. But once it came to me I literally could not put it down and I'm just happy to be free before this next week of classes starts. Mind the warnings and enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Dedication: **For Amanda in the Hogwarts Gift Tag forum; this story came to life while I was listening to "Kangaroo Cry" by Blue October.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #1, Dentistry #1 Write about something being done daily.

**Warnings: **Issues of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage; canon-compliant torture; set during the last year of the Second Wizarding War

* * *

**Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow **

_There would have been a time for such a word._

_Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,_

_Creeps in this petty pace from day to day_

_To the last syllable of recorded time,_

_And all our yesterdays have lighted fools_

_The way to dusty death._

—_Macbeth,_ Act V

"This is getting dangerous," Hannah whispered as she pulled him into the Hufflepuff Common Room.

"Aren't you glad to see me?" Neville asked with a smile on his lips. That grin had a touch of self-aware, taunting bravado that Hannah wouldn't have pictured him with mere weeks ago. Now, he wore it well.

"Of course I am," she said, resting her head against his chest and wrapping her arms around him. She slumped against him and let out a sigh. "This is the best part of my day."

Neville was so soft, Hannah always thought that she may just fall asleep against him one of these nights. He always seemed a little taken aback by her touch and there was a split-second delay before he wrapped his arms around her and tucked her against him, chin resting on the top of her head. He moved for a second to kiss the top of her brown curls before settling against her again. On some days, they spent all their time together doing nothing but this—being together. It didn't sound like much, but Hannah was thankful for every minute that they had together.

* * *

The tiny alarm on Hannah's watch went off.

"It's been fifteen minutes," she said.

"It's always so short," Neville said. He leaned down and kissed her, hand cupping her cheek, and she pulled away when the alarm's chime started again. Neville had to get going while the coast was still clear for him, before the various patrols around the castle crossed his way back to the Room of Requirement.

"I'll see you again tomorrow, though, okay?" Neville promised.

"Tomorrow," Hannah nodded. She'd never known Neville to break a promise but the words still brought a pang to her stomach. "It's always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow with us, isn't it?"

"One day all of this will be yesterdays," Neville promised her.

* * *

She sat Neville down on the sofa today. The common room was empty as always at this time, though the fire roared as per usual. The round windows that circled the room let in nothing but starlight. Notes, letters, cards, photographs, cut-outs from _The Daily Prophet _and _The Quibbler, _and sketches were hung across the Common Room on clothing lines across the room. The particular sofa they were sitting under was canopied by a collection of paper lanterns on which Hannah and the other seventh-years had gotten the younger students to scribble down their wishes for the new year. Their wishes broke her heart a little bit; they wanted their Muggleborn friends back, they wanted Defense Against the Dark Arts to be quiet and uneventful, they wanted Professor Sprout to be allowed to give them candy when she visited the common room again… They broke Hannah's heart but she envied them a little bit. She didn't know what she wanted and she would give anything for a clear path forward.

"What's wrong, you don't look well," Neville said.

"Ernie, Leanne, Susan and I noticed that Seamus Finnegan wasn't around today," Hannah said. "Is it true that he's started living in the Room of Requirement too? That's what we thought, but the other Gryffindors didn't know."

"I think he will, yeah," Neville said. "He's gotten under the Carrows' skin one too many times. If that's what's got you so worried, I promise he's safe and snoring right now. You can pass the word around if others are worried..."

Her hands fingered the wool of his sweater nervously. "I want to join, Neville. I'm tired of the school, of how afraid and tired everyone is, of only seeing you for half-an-hour every night."

"You're not being noticed right now," Neville said. "That's a good thing. It means that when you graduate, you can disappear into the world, you can be safe and apart from this."

"I don't know how true that's going to be," Hannah said. She bit her lip and her eyes flitted down to her midriff quickly, as if imagining what her stomach may look like in a few months. The thought made her sick.

"Hannah?" Neville said. His hand cupped her cheek and gently, so very gently, he tilted her chin up to look at her. "Hannah, all that matters is that you're safe and…"

"I'm pregnant," she interrupted.

* * *

Hufflepuff's yellow banners draped the walls, giving the room a cozy and warm feeling though the entire castle had felt cold to Hannah since the hiding had begun—cold until Neville came to her, that was.

"Are you going to tell me anything about your day?" Hannah asked, her cheek against his jumper.

"No," Neville said quietly. "Just in case they ask you. If you don't have anything to tell, they won't have anything to take from you."

"Okay," Hannah said. She'd expected so much even if she didn't like it. It was part of their routine, after all, and they did this every day. They'd done it for the last few yesterdays and they'd be having the same clandestine encounter tomorrow. Still, the distance was odd. She'd been well plugged-in to the everyday activities of Dumbledore's Army up until January, when Luna hadn't come back from the break and Neville probably should have run away too—and then he'd ended up going undercover, hiding... Now, everything and everyone felt disconnected. She knew that Dumbledore's Army was still alive and well, but they existed in alcoves and nooks, connected to one another through a network of truths and information so elaborate, it couldn't be cracked accidentally. Their regular meetings in the Room of Requirement had grown rarer and rarer, given how much more important the room's secrecy was becoming as students had to literally vanish.

"Can I ask you about your day?" Neville asked.

"It wasn't very exciting," Hannah said. She shifted through the day's events to decide what to tell him. He didn't have to know that Alecto Carrow had given her a week of detention for refusing to answer certain questions on her last so-called Muggle Studies exam, nor did he need to know that Professor Sprout seemed to miss him in Herbology—often looking to the spot to her right where Neville typically installed his work station… She wanted to manage his energy and his hope, even if it seemed bottomless.

"McGonagall let us spend all of Transfiguration period doing homework and circulating a copy of _The Quibbler _that someone smuggled into the school," Hannah said. "She's tired. My stomach was in a mood, so I had breakfast food for all three meals today, the house elves are really doing me a great service. Slughorn's now spent five extra classes on poisons and antidotes than the syllabus said he would—I think he's genuinely worried about us students under this regime."

"Poor man," Neville said. "Getting back to Hogwarts just before it all goes wrong…"

"I helped him clean beakers after class and he was a chatterbox like always, so that's good," Hannah said. She hesitated before she brought this up, but of course they would have to talk about it. "He's been really nice to me. He's been sliding me the potions I need for the morning sickness himself, that way I don't have to go to Madam Pomfrey and word doesn't trickle out."

Neville's arms tensed around her for a second but then they lowered so that his hands rested on her hips and he stepped back, as if to take a proper look at her. One of his hands touched her forehead, as if checking for a fever.

"Is it still bad?" Neville asked.

"It's getting better," Hannah said—which she was thankful for. If she'd continued missing first period classes much longer, someone far less kind than Slughorn would have started asking questions.

He nodded, and his hand slid from her face into her hair and Hannah eased into the touch while it was there for her to ease into.

* * *

It would have been nice to just curl up by the fireplace, or for Hannah to be able to stitch up the cut by Neville's eye with their stolen first aid supplies in peace. But their time was precious and so she had to get through all their business.

"The Carrows are still advertising that if someone knows where you are, they'll reward them greatly."

"Well aren't you lucky," Neville teased.

"Be _careful," _Hannah repeated, not for the last time. "You're driving them mad, and they'll be twice as cruel if they catch you. They're looking for Seamus, too. Otherwise, they've officially stopped being subtle about searching our mail—letters aren't even being resealed—and they've announced that trips to Hogsmeade are cancelled, so you can tell Aberforth the DA won't be meeting at his place anymore. All the groups in all the common rooms missed the last episode of Potterwatch because of whatever it is they're doing to the barriers, to block out radio signals, and we're worried that it'll be the same thing next week…"

* * *

She only had him once a day. Once a day he came, sneaking out of the Room of Requirement, evading the patrols to set up graffiti in the halls or vandalize the DADA rooms, coming to see her… She didn't want to talk about this while they had so little time together.

"I'm still thinking about what to do, Neville."

He nodded. He never brought it up, always giving her space, and she felt bad because she knew he was worried and curious.

"I'm on your side, whatever you decide," he said, not for the first time, kissing her temples. She sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in him. He pulled her closer so that she sat on his lap, since they'd simply plopped down on the common room floor

She wanted him, she wanted peace. And if she couldn't have those things, then she wanted to do what she could to bring the world back to its right orbit—fight the Carrows, find little ways to subvert You-Know-Who's rules, read independent papers, help the first years heal the burns they got after target practises… she didn't want to bring more mess into this mess, to expose anybody new to the absolute unraveling of the world.

But she wanted this. She wanted to find a way to make it work. That was who she was, Hannah always made everything work, always kept going, always moved forward…

She just wasn't sure she trusted herself with that kind of miracle—it would feel like too many miracles orbiting one another, and something somewhere would collide with something else, somewhere else. And this wasn't something that could just _go _wrong; it had to go right or it just shouldn't be done, she couldn't help but think. The timing was wrong, and timing was everything—Sprout said it in Herbology when they transferred seedlings to gardens, Slughorn said it when they added ingredients to simmering cauldrons… She was afraid of what may happen to this seedling if she rushed it, brought it in at the wrong time or when the world was all wrong.

"I think I could ask Slughorn or Madam Pomfrey to help me end it," Hannah said. "I also think I could hide in the Room of Requirement, wait out my graduation date…"

"I think you can do anything," Neville said. "Just tell me what you _want _and what you _need._"

She took a deep breath.

"I really needed to see you, today," she said. "To remember that the world's not so definitely over. That's there's tomorrow."

"And tomorrow and tomorrow," Neville promised.

* * *

"I knew she was still seeing you."

Neville nearly jumped out of his skin, raising his wand by instinct, although it was just Ernie MacMillan peering out of the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room. Neville was hiding in a nook on the other side of the hallway, one he assumed had originally been destined to store wine bottles based off of the honey-comb shaped shelves built into the wall.

He always thought that the Hufflepuff Common Room was much like the Hufflepuffs themselves; safe, sturdy, warm, unassuming, and often forgotten about. He'd been thankful a thousand times in the last few months that the hall where the common room stood was rarely patrolled and relatively easy to sneak into. Still, he'd gotten worried when Hannah hadn't emerged at her usual time to usher him in.

Ernie stepped aside and Neville darted across the hall, into the common room. Ernie shut the door behind him.

"Don't put your wand away," he said.

"What's going on?" Neville asked.

"You're going to have to listen," Ernie said. "And you're going to have to be angry about this later because we have to focus right now."

"He's here?" another voice piped up. Susan Bones was sitting by the fireplace, hugging her knees, and it seemed as if she'd been crying. Leanne Faye had been pacing but she stopped when she saw Neville. All of them were still in school uniforms despite the hour.

"What's wrong?" Neville asked, his heart slowly making its way upwards and into his throat. "Where's Hannah?"

"We were in Dark Arts," Ernie said—which was what the Hufflepuffs had taken to calling Defense Against the Dark Arts in protest, even if it frequently earned them trouble. "They were going to make us use the Cruciatus curse on this first year Gryffindor boy who'd apparently heard some story about Harry swallowing a Snitch and called him cool. Anyways, Hannah spoke up, and Carrow said that if she had a problem the class could just use her to practise instead."

"No—where—" Neville's head was spinning.

Ernie gave him a look like _be patient. _

Neville took a deep breath, though it was shaky. _Be angry about this later, _Ernie had said.

"He Imperiused her but she somehow managed to break it for a second and shout out, just before the first Slytherins went at it, that she was pregnant," Ernie said. He gave Neville a pointed look and Neville felt all the blood rush out of his head.

"They didn't…" Neville said.

"Carrow went at it himself," Ernie said. "Called it an accident, didn't even get summoned to Snape's office. She's been in the Infirmary all day. Susan and Leanne tried to visit, but even Madam Pomfrey couldn't get them in because Alecto Carrow was just _there_. I've been pretending to be Hannah's boyfriend all day, trying to keep them away from her and take some attention off of you, but I don't think they're buying it."

"It's you, isn't it?" Leanne asked. "You… you knew?"

Neville nodded.

"I thought you did too," Neville said. "Is she still in the infirmary? Is she…"

"We heard her talking to Madam Pomfrey," Susan said. She stood up and Neville saw that she had a floppy messenger bag with her—Neville had seen Hannah on the train or at Hogsmeade with it all the time. "We put her things in here, with an Extension charm."

"We reckon we have to get her out of the Infirmary tonight," Leanne said. "We were just waiting for you because we didn't want to bring her to the Room while you may be out, just so you didn't get locked out or something…"

"Okay. Let's get her out… I have Peruvian instant darkness powder in my pocket," Neville said, going over their options. "The quickest way to get from the Infirmary to the Room would be to take that first staircase and get to the third floor to cross to the North side quickly, but I don't know if we can manage the stairs in between patrols if she can't walk..."

Merlin, he hated that thought.

"We could just turn left when we leave the Infirmary and cut through the Charms wings to get into that passage behind the lady holding the snake plant," Susan said.

"That's probably our best bet," Neville said. He scratched the back of his head, forcing himself to focus on the layout of the castle. "And if we get off on the eight floor, we can take the staircase with the bejeweled banister down and we'll be right by the Room… Yeah, that's our best bet—it would be even better if we could get a distraction going on the eight floor, on the North end…"

"Peeves owes me a favour for telling him Alecto Carrow's middle name," Susan blurted.

Neville was taken aback.

"I didn't know Peeves did favours," Neville said, part of him filing that away for future use though most of him was just thankful that the poltergeist's usual shenanigans may benefit them. "But alright, let's go get her."

* * *

Hannah had been in and out of sleep a few times now. Every time, Neville was there to press a glass of water to her lips, remind her of what had happened if she asked, promise her that her friends were okay, or dab drops of stolen pain-relieving potion on the inside of her cheek. It had seemed a little serendipitous that Madam Pomfrey had left a full jar along with a written reminder to herself on how to use it by Hannah's bedside, but the matron _did _have a few extra senses about what kind of trouble her students may get into. She fell asleep more easily when he stayed by her side, which he did unless she fell asleep while he was getting up to grab another blanket, and all she knew was that she was warm and comfortable.

The first time she managed to stay awake for more than ten minutes, and even laugh about something Ernie had done in a story he told her, he couldn't help it. The sound of her laughing, laughing and being alive, was overwhelming and he just started crying. He buried his face in her shoulder and cried.

"I'm so happy you're alive and awake and…" he couldn't finish his thought and took a deep, shaky breath. "I was so scared…"

"Shh," Hannah said, one of her hands finding its way to his hair. She stroked softly and evenly, still holding Neville against her. "I'm okay."

"You're not, though," Neville said. "Hannah, that shouldn't have happened to you. That shouldn't have happened and you could have died and you lost so much and…"

"Okay," Hannah amended. "I'm not okay. But tomorrow I might be. And tomorrow, and tomorrow…"

"And tomorrow," Neville finished. A few more sobs had to make their way out before he could steady his own breathing again. He kept his forehead pressed against her shoulder as his breathing steadied and synched with hers, thankful that after all their yesterdays they had today.

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Fore-Touch; Cete; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Badger Sow; Brush; Winter Wonderland; Seeds; Tissue Warning; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Location, Location, Location; Themes & Things A (Love); Themes & Things B (Loss); Themes & Things D (Sweater/Jumper); Themes & Things F (Resilience); Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: **3148


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